11th October 2018 is International Day of the Girl Child

With our desire to transform the lives of females around the world, 11th October International Day of the Girl reminds us that our work is vital to provide a voice for those girls who do not have one.

This year with a theme of ‘With Her: A Skilled GirlForce’, we concentrate on how innovation and automation are changing the world and workforce in which almost 600 million adolescent girls will soon be entering into the next decade. Of those girls more than 90% of those living in developing countries will work in jobs where there is low or no pay and where abuse and exploitation is common.

On the 11th October we focus on working alongside all girls to expand learning opportunities, new pathways and rethink how we can help them prepare for a successful transition into the world of work.Many Soroptimist Clubs in our Federation are involved in projects that seek to address basic needs. Below are examples of just a few of these projects.

SI South Perth and SI Mandurah, Australia - School Packs Project

SI South Perth Club raising funds for the School Packs Project, which helps with the purchase of stationery packs for children attending school.

SI Mandurah Club partnered with SI South Perth on this project to assist in placing donation boxes within local libraries. Congratulations to all involved!

Soroptimist International South Perth began supporting this initiative after the recognition of the detrimental impacts on children attending school without stationery supplies has and how they can support the School Packs Project from the start.

The group is donating $2,000 for the purchase of stationery for the school packs. Find out more about the group and the great things they do on their website http://sisouthperth.org.au/

SI Jakarta, Indonesia - Tangsel Scholarship-Mentoring Program

Soroptimist International of Jakarta (SIJ) has partnered with Titian Foundation to run Tangsel Scholarship-Mentoring Program since August 2017.

The overall objective is to mentor students to build characters and capacities so that they can make informed decisions about taking higher education or joining the workforce. In charge of the mentoring program SI Jakarta provides scholarship for 2 girls and Titian Foundation has provided funding for most of the scholarships.

There are 15 students benefiting from experiential learning and art to facilitate the students to acquire personal power, increase self-esteem, improve self discipline and responsibility, as well as improve communication, teamwork and social skills. Group coaching has been used to help the students to be accountable for taking steps in achieving their goals, integrating their learning into real life.Students, wrote, directed and performed a play in March 2018 to inspire high school students to develop personal integrity. We believe messages created and delivered by peers have a significantly greater chance of being heard and making an impact on young audience. Students also organized their own event to celebrate International Women’s Day in March 2018. The event was conducted in English so that they could practice their English. They also participated in English writing competition about women’s role in communities.

SI Jakarta gave them the opportunity to raise funds through a garage sale that took place in June 2018. The funds are for the upcoming program to prevent risky behaviours among teenagers through art program in collaboration with KPAI (Indonesian Commission for Children Protection).

SI Brisbane Water, Australia - Lifting Aspirations Program

SI Brisbane Water supporting local schools.

SI Brisbane Water raised funds for supporting local school Henry Kendall High School Special Unit.

Funds were donated to the Lifting Aspirations Program, and also directed towards supporting three girls with their registration fees for the State Athletics Carnival for students with disabilities.

SI Dusit, Thailand - Scholarship Program

Soroptimist International Dusit Scholarship program began in 1995 and has sponsored 2,256 girls from various upcountry provinces so far.

For the past four years SI Dusit (SID) have been giving scholarships to students in Sra Kaeo province with the cooperation of the Foundation for Education Along the Border. The foundation, chaired by General Phitsanu Urailert has been helping the Club in selecting less fortunate girl students in remote schools along the Thailand border adjacent to Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.Sra Kaeo, a province close to the Cambodian border was chosen as a location as the parents and families of this province are members of the, ”Affected Village”. There were times in the past when there was fighting between ethnic factions along the border, many died and many were injured. From the available statistics of 45 families of this province, the annual income is as low as Baht 70000 per annum, while some families cannot state their annual income since its not regular. SID began with 20 Scholarships in 2015, and have increased it to 30 in 2016, 40 in 2017 and this year there are 60 students.

Most of these less fortunate students stay with their grandparents because their parents are divorced. These students have been chosen not just because they are in need, but because they are enthusiastic, motivated, hard working and have secured on an average grades of 2.5.

Each year SI Dusit visit the Burapha Task Force where we present scholarships to the students. On July 18th 2018, President June Khazi along with six SID members handed over scholarships to 60 students together with gifts. Gifts were also presented to the rest of the group of 80 students. SID appreciates the support from the Foundation for Education along the Border. One of the students who represented the group, thanked SI Dusit for the support and promised to study well and to be useful to the family and society.

SI Eastern Districts of Adelaide, Australia - PK Mentoring Camps

Eastern Districts of Adelaide club is supporting Second Chances Teen camps. Second Chances is an organisation based in South Australia, which assists the children of prisoners to break the generational cycle of crime.

Helen Glanville, the Chief Executive of Second Chances has spoken at our club meetings about organising camps for teen girls, which through outdoor activities and positive role models teach the girls new skills and values.The camps are custom designed with one mentor allocated to each camper. Activities are provided to promote life values such as respect, trust and responsibility in a safe environment.Our club has been working with Helen and raising funds for the camps since 2013. The Camp Director, Helen Rance has attended meetings with one of the mentors to provide insight about how the girls benefit from the camps. It is rewarding now for the club to hear from one of the girls who seven years ago attended her first camp and is now attending University and is a leader to whom the junior campers look up to and admire.

SI Eastern Districts of Adelaide has another visit from Helen and mentor Montana scheduled and is preparing to fund another camp in October this year.